Why I Love Animation: Toy Story 2 - Part One

I am excited for Toy Story 3. Because I know I am going to see it no matter what, I’ve been trying to read and watch relatively little of the pre-release peeks at the film. But what I’ve seen and heard so far I like, for the most part. I think the premise is an extremely bold move and I can’t wait to see how Pixar pulls it off.

Roughly eleven years ago – and yes, it really has been that long – I was feeling a little less excited and a lot more worried about Toy Story 2.

How could I have ever been concerned about a movie that ended up being one of my favorite animated films of all time? For starters, it was 1999 and Pixar’s track record consisted of a whopping two films: the original Toy Story, which was a great movie, and A Bug’s Life, which was good but didn’t grab me quite as much as Toy Story did. So Pixar had made two quality films. A good start, but not enough to call it a pattern. Not enough to make me certain that they would keep making good films and avoid potential huge missteps. Five years before, Disney had kicked off their controversial direct-to-video sequels with The Return of Jafar and while I expected that a theatrically released Pixar film would be of better quality than most of Disney’s home video offerings, I did wonder if the release of a sequel relatively soon after the original film was due more to a desire to capitalize on the success of Toy Story than to a desire to tell another great story. But I think a big contributor to my nervousness was the teaser trailer:



I liked seeing the little squeaky toy aliens and Woody and Buzz back on the big screen. But what got me worrying was how Buzz and Woody were acting. To me, it felt a little to close to the animosity they displayed towards each other through most of the first movie. And that had me worried that Pixar was about to make one of the biggest mistakes the possibly could: releasing a sequel that was a retread of the original. The challenge of making a good sequel is finding the sweet spot between giving audiences more of what they loved the first time around and presenting them with something new and fresh. Too much of the latter and you lose the benefit of having a successful first movie, because your sequel doesn’t have enough connection to the original. Too much of the former, which was what I was afraid of here, and it’s like the first movie didn’t matter. Anything that the characters learned or gained in the original film gets erased in the name of ensuring that audiences get exactly what won them over the first time around.

Of course, I needn’t have worried. Toy Story 2 wasn’t a retread and didn’t erase everything that had happened in the previous film. It showed me that Pixar knew what they were doing and made me trust that their future films would be of high quality. It became my new favorite Pixar film (and remained in that spot for a long time, though now I can’t decide between it and The Incredibles), one of my very favorite animated films, and that rarest of beasts: a sequel that I liked more than the original.

As is always the case when I do a full-blown analysis, the rest of the article assumes that you have already seen the movie and spoilers abound. I would strongly recommend that if you’ve never seen the movie before, you find yourself a copy and watch it before reading further. Of course, you can just read the article without having seen the movie and even comment on your impressions if you so choose. Just keep in mind that this is no substitute for actually seeing the movie and in this case, you’re missing out on a really excellent film.



The movie kicks off with Buzz Lightyear, a character we all know from the first movie. The setting, however, is literally alien. Buzz dives down from outer space like a comet and soars through a rocky landscape before touching down on the strange planet. What’s going on here? We recognize Buzz, but the fist Toy Story was partly about Buzz accepting the fact that he is a toy, not a space ranger, not capable of doing exactly the things we’re seeing him do now. Is this a dream? Andy's view of a game he’s playing? Something else? As it turns out, it’s all a Buzz Lightyear video game. By the filmmakers’ own admission, it’s also a misdirect. This is part of that balancing act between staying faithful to what the original move was and creating something new and different. Giving the audience exactly what they’re expecting all the time can get boring for everyone, so this film starts with something that appears to be pretty far distant from what the original Toy Story was all about.

Is the opening to Toy Story 2 just a fake-out, the equivalent of saying “Ha ha, fooled you! Now here’s the real movie”? No. Aside from keeping the audience on their toes and letting them know that Toy Story 2 will not be the same movie as the first one, the video game scene gives us our first new character introduction, or our first two new character introductions, depending on how you look at it. The obvious one is the evil Emperor Zurg, intergalactic archenemy of Buzz Lightyear. Zurg did get a passing mention in the previous film, but he’s never actually appeared before and it would be a pretty big risk to assume that viewers would remember his name. So we get to see Zurg watching Buzz’s approach through his red-tinted monitor, laughing evilly, and blasting Buzz’s upper body into dust right before the true nature of the scene is revealed. We don’t know that Zurg is an actual character within the real story of the movie yet and he doesn’t appear in the plastic until much later. This scene sets him up in our minds so that when he does actually show up, our reaction is “uh-oh” rather than confusion.

The other character introduced in this scene is Buzz. No, I’m not losing it. I know Buzz was already in the first movie. But what this scene does is to remind us of the particulars of Buzz’s fictional backstory and his former delusions. This will become important later, when there are two Buzz Lightyears, one of whom is still under the impression that he is a real space ranger. Again, we don’t know that any of this is coming; we’re just having fun watching an exciting action scene. But when we meet the second Buzz later on, we’ll have a better idea of what to expect of him because of what we saw Buzz doing and saying in the opening.

The reveal comes about four an a half minutes into the movie and we see timid tyrannosaurus Rex with a proportionately huge control, wailing over his latest defeat at the hands of the virtual Zurg. This brings us back to the world of the familiar, the Toy Story 2 we were expecting, with all our favorite characters and everything we know and love from the first movie.



If I still had any concerns that this sequel was going to ignore the changes that the characters went through in the first movie in order to go back to the formula that had worked before, seeing Buzz talking to Rex all but erased them. What really reassured me was Buzz’s attempt to dull the sting of Rex’s video game loss by saying “In fact, you’re a better Buzz than I am.” This isn’t the same deluded, self-important guy who showed up o Andy’s bed in the previous film. Buzz knows who he is now and he’s comfortable with life as a toy. As the scene progresses, we see that Buzz’s relationship with Woody is much better than what it was through most of Toy Story. These are still two guys and Woody is understandably stressed at the moment. So they aren’t going to sing songs about what good friends they are, and Woody is still capable of getting mildly irritated by Buzz in his flustered state. But the really important detail in their interaction is that Woody is leaving Buzz in charge while he’s away, something that he never would have done willingly in the first film. The first time I saw the film, this was the point where my doubts were completely gone.

Since the first Toy Story was a big hit, it’s fair to assume that most people seeing the sequel already know who all of the major characters are. So instead of doing full introductions for them, all that’s needed is to lightly tap the audience’s memories. For starters, we have Andy’s room. It’s not the exact same Andy’s room where a good chunk of Toy Story took place; remember Andy’s family moved into a new house. But it still has enough recognizable features to let us know where we are, even without the added clue of all of Andy’s toys being there. Many of the furnishings are the same, though the layout is slightly different. The overall décor is still split between Buzz and outer space themed items and Woody wild west ones representing both Andy’s love of his two favorite toys and the hard won friendship between Woody and Buzz. The biggest difference is the wallpaper, and even that is similar enough to jog memories of Andy’s old room. Where the old room features a pattern of white clouds on a sky blue background, the new one swaps the clouds for yellow stars.

The characters themselves are reintroduced by giving them all some role in the task of finding Woody’s missing hat that recalls some aspects of their characters. When Woody’s frantic searching for his hat causes him to fall from the chest of drawers, Buzz rushes to his aid by way of the Hot Wheels track that helped him to “fly” in the first film. He no longer thinks he’s a space ranger, but Buzz is still an athletic and heroic character. Sarge is ordering the army men to continue digging through the toy chest. Hamm, who maintains the toys’ literal window to the outside world, is communicating with the next door lawn gnome, who reports that Woody’s hat is not in the yard. Mr. Potato Head is completely oblivious to Woody’s problem and only cares about himself and one other, who we’ll get to shortly. Loyal, laid-back Slinky, Woody’s best pal, is the one to actually track down his lost hat.



In addition to reintroducing the returning characters, this scene debuts no less than three new characters. First is Mrs. Potato Head, who was one of Andy’s sister Molly’s Christmas presents at the end of the previous movie. She ends up being more of a secondary character here and we won’t see all that much of her, but she still provides a lot of entertainment value when she does appear. We first see her reading to some of the preschool toys, a sign of her motherly nature. She clearly adores Mr. Potato Head and he loves her too. While the rest of Andy’s toys are busy looking for Woody’s hat, Mr. Potato Head is only concerned with finding his wife’s missing ear. He’s largely still the same surly spud from the first movie, but his wife’s influence does seem to have softened him a little.



The second new character, like Zurg and deluded Buzz, makes his first appearance without the audience realizing his importance to the story. “Al’s Toy Barn” was a throwaway line at the end of the Buzz Lightyear commercial in the original Toy Story. Now, through another commercial, we’re introduced to the eponymous Al. Al’s future significance is a little more obvious than that of the characters from the video game. Why bother showing the commercial and having Hamm comment on his distaste for the guy in the chicken suit if it’s not going to come up again? But Al is onscreen for less than twenty seconds here, so the audience isn’t being hit over the head with the idea of him.

I tend to think – and I believe rightly so – that the people at Pixar are very talented and very smart, among the best in the business. But this does not prevent them from making the occasional mistake. In a story recounted by Disney Legend Floyd Norman, credited as an additional storyboard artist on Toy Story 2, some elementary school children paid a visit to Pixar and got a look at an early version of the film. They liked what they saw, except for one small detail. “Hey, where’s the dog?” they asked, referring to the puppy that Andy got for Christmas at the very end of the original movie. And all of these wonderfully creative and intelligent filmmakers looked at each other and said “Whoops.”



So thanks in part to a group of schoolkids, we have our third new character: Buster the dog. His introduction is another misdirect and a bit more of a cheat than the video game opening. Though a lot of it does count on our memories of Sid’s vicious dog Scud and use similar shots to stir them up, the toys’ reactions to Buster’s approach seem a little too fearful once it’s revealed that Buster is really a sweet puppy and the only reason Woody has to hide quickly is so that he and Buster can play their customary game of hide and seek. Buster is another character who doesn’t have many scenes, but is still a lot of fun. Though, like the toys, he is capable of doing and understanding more than the humans in the house suspect, he is still very much a real dog. He can’t talk, walk upright, or do anything that a normal dog is physically incapable of doing. He may be a little smarter than the average dog, everything he does fits with the personality of an exuberant, eager to please puppy.

Buster is also the most obvious example of how computer animation has advanced since the first movie. Where Scud had a flat texture with marks carved into him to resemble fur, Buster has a fur texture much closer to that of a real dog. Although Pixar is very good about picking subjects for their films which their technology can handle well, their technological advancements tend to be dictated by the needs of the story. Buster is a necessary part of the narrative, not just a way to show off a cool new way of rendering fur.

We’ve reconnected with all of our old friends and met some new faces. But we also need to be reminded of what’s at the heart of the story. Woody is searching for his hat, desperate to find it. Why? Because Andy is leaving for cowboy camp today. Why is Woody excited about cowboy camp? Because it’s a trip where Woody gets to spend time alone with Andy, something that Woody can still appreciate even if he’s no longer jealous of Buzz. This brings back one of the big emotional points from the first movie: how much Woody loves Andy. And when Bo Peep reassures Woody, telling him that the boy who wrote his name on Woody’s foot will take him to cowboy camp with or without his hat, we’re reminded of how important Woody is to Andy and that the “Andy” on Woody’s boot is a symbol of the connection between them. So now we’re all caught up with the current state of affairs in Andy’s room and just about everything we needed to know from the first movie. On with the show!



I love this scene. I could easily watch twice as much of just Andy playing with his toys. Though we knew by the end of Toy Story that Andy cares very much about both Woody and Buzz, we never got to see how he now plays with them together. Here, we get both that and more of Andy’s genre-mixing way of playing. It’s also another good example of how some of Andy’s toys are permanent characters and other fill different roles on different days. Regardless of the scenario, Woody is always Sheriff Woody and Buzz is always Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (represented here by a cardboard box labeled “Star Command.” It’s possible that Bo Peep is always Woody’s love interest, a rare reflection of her real relationship with him. But Hamm has been promoted from playing the bank in Andy’s game from the opening of the original movie to the role of the misplaced Bond villain, Dr. Pork Chop. And Mr. Potato Head, formerly the infamous One-Eyed Bart, is now merely an unfortunate victim of “death by monkeys.”

But the real point of this scene is to create the rip in Woody’s shoulder which ultimately leads to him being left behind when Andy goes off to cowboy camp. Pains are taken to show both how upset Andy is when Woody is damaged and that Andy was not doing anything wrong to cause the rip. His toys do get knocked around when he plays, but most of them can take anything Andy can dish out. The problem is that Woody is not as sturdy as most of his fellow toys, a condition that may well be related to his age, which we will learn about later. Andy’s mom, compassionate as ever, suggests that they try to fix Woody on the way to cowboy camp. It is Andy who sadly decides that he’s better off leaving Woody behind, but his mom is the one who delivers the line that brings in one of the movie’s main themes: “Toys don’t last forever.”



Before this line, there isn’t much difference in tone and theme between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story. It’s still about a kid’s toys and what they do when no one is around. The emotional lynchpin is still Woody’s relationship with Andy. As a good sequel, Toy Story 2 picks up on these important threads from the first movie. Part of what makes Toy Story 2 both a great sequel and a great movie is that the central issue of the second film is much more complex than that of the first. The ultimate message of Toy Story is that Woody’s fears were unjustified and Andy was capable of loving both Woody and Buzz. New toys aren’t competition for the older ones and birthdays and Christmases are nothing to be afraid of. The important thing about the statement “toys don’t last forever” is that it’s undeniably true and the movie will never pretend that it isn’t. Woody is not Winnie the Pooh; he doesn’t live in a magical vision of childhood, forever safe, where Christopher Robin, children the world over, and the creators of the next Winnie the Pooh film can always find him for years to come. There will be no scene at the end where the toys no longer fear yard sales, which they equate with being discarded the way they once equated birthdays with being replaced. While the story does conclude that there is a “right” course of action, it is not an easy decision. The stakes are higher here and Woody’s decision feel all the more real and courageous because he knows the consequences. He can never deny that neither he nor what he has with Andy will go on forever. This one line not only lays the framework for this movie, but sows the seeds that look like they will bear fruit in Toy Story 3.

To be continued....


Trivia Time! Pixar frequently includes little in-joke references to their other films and shorts in their movies. Toy Story 2 is no exception. Your challenge this week is to name at least two such references in Toy Story 2 to previous Pixar works other than the first Toy Story. Post your reply in the comments. Winner get their name posted next week along with a link to a site of his or her choice.

All images in this article are copyright Disney/Pixar.

Upcoming Animation - Shrek Forever After

The trailer for DreamWorks' fourth Shrek film is up. Shrek Forever After (Get it? Four-ever After?) is said to be the last film in the series. Judging from the trailer, it looks like Shrek's latest adventure could have been called "It's An Ogreful Life":





Thoughts?

Half-Hour Commercials

Animated TV shows and toys have a long history together though not as long as you might think. Today, shows based on toy properties are quite plentiful. Flip through a couple of channels of kids’ programming and you’re bound to come across at least one series based on a toy line, a video game, a card game, or some other product available at your local toy store. Given how common such shows are now, it can be hard to believe that not too long ago, such shows did not exist in the U.S. In fact, they were pretty much against the law.

The concerns about program length commercials started around 1969. Toy company Mattel had started promoting its miniature car toyline Hot Wheels with a Saturday morning cartoon. This move prompted Topper Toys, one of Mattel’s competitors to complain to the FCC that the show gave Mattel an unfair advantage and was really just a “half-hour commercial” for Mattel’s product. The FCC agreed with Topper’s claims and eventually adopted a rather vague set of guidelines for what constituted a program length commercial. Commercial programs were defined as those where the goal of selling the sponsoring company’s product took precedence over either entertaining or informing the public. These shows were therefore counted as part of the station’s commercial time, which had to be limited to a certain amount of time per hour.

The FCC’s change in policy regarding shows based on products came about in the 1980s. The Reagan administration favored deregulation in various sectors of the economy, including television. Under Reagan, the FCC took less of a role in insuring that television served the public interest over commercial interests. Annual specials based on the Strawberry Shortcake line of dolls began running in 1980 and the syndicated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, featuring the characters from Mattel’s action figure line, debuted in 1983. By the middle of the decade, the FCC had revisited its previous decision on commercial programs and removed their previous restrictions on such shows.

The debate over the effects of the deregulation of children’s television programming is something I will leave to the experts in that field. Suffice to say, the worries about shows aimed at children based on products marketed to children have not gone away. Again, I am not an expert in advertising, child psychology, or any other field that would allow me to talk knowledgeably about the issues on both sides of this ongoing debate. What I am is an animation fan and what bothers me is the argument from groups concerned about the amount of advertising children are exposed to that these shows really are nothing more than “half-hour commercials” and are devoid of merit because of it.

The problem with this line of thinking can be seen even in the FCC’s original attempts to define what a program length commercial is. While it may sound like an easy distinction, it is actually pretty difficult to determine whether a show’s primary goal is to sell product, mainly because television shows are seldom created with a single, primary goal in mind. The modern television show has to accomplish a lot more than just entertaining or informing the viewers. Between the need to convince a production company to make the show in the first place, the need to court networks, and the need to woo advertisers, a show needs to convince any number of people of its merits beyond its intended audience. Even the public broadcasting shows aimed at children must always strike a balance between entertaining and educating their young viewers. It is impossible to educate children through television if they don’t enjoy the show enough to watch it. The same is true of shows that are designed in part to advertise a product. If the kids don’t enjoy the show, the advertising opportunity is lost. So how do you determine whether one goal trumps the other, whether entertainment or advertising is the primary objective? He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was clearly entertaining to the children it was aimed at and the series has fans to this day. Does being based on a line of toys diminish its value as entertainment?



Certainly there have been TV series that do little beyond selling the product they are based on, where character and plot are completely subservient to showcasing the toys available for purchase. But at the same time, there are shows that are much more than overlong advertisements. Beast Wars: Transformers is one such show. The second part of the title leaves little doubt of its connection to the world of toys. Beast Wars was created to promote the new incarnation of toy company Hasbro’s line of transforming robot figures of the same name. Right from the start, selling toys was part of this show’s mission. It could easily be defined as another half-hour commercial, except that it’s actually really good. Over the course of its three season run, Beast Wars entertained its faithful viewers with complex characters, exciting and rich plotlines that played out over multiple episodes, and what at the time was top notch computer animation for television. (The show was among the earliest computer animated series produced for TV. Mainframe Entertainment - now known as Rainmaker Entertainment, the studio that created the first completely computer animated TV series ReBoot, handled the animation.) The heroes had genuine flaws and the villains were strong and smart enough to be a credible threat. Since computer animation was expensive at the time, the cast was kept small, allowing the show’s writers to focus on real character development rather than trying to cram in every single figure from the toyline. While the show did help to sell toys, it also accomplished much more by telling good stories, seldom talking down to its intended audience, and introducing original concepts and even characters that served the show rather than just reflecting the product.

Sometime in the 1990s, a toy company approached an animation studio. They were planning to produce a line of model spaceships and wanted an animated series to base their models on. The show could be anything the studio wanted, but it had to include spaceships. Sounds like the formula for another half-hour commercial, right? Well, only if you would call Cowboy Bebop a half-hour commercial.



Yup, that’s right. This smart, sophisticated, and extremely popular anime was born partly from Japanese toymaker Bandai asking anime studio Sunrise to create a show that Bandai could use to kick off their model spaceship line. Bandai took a very hands-off approach to the show beyond insisting on the presence of the spaceships, which are an important part of the show, but not nearly as central as the characters. The show was a big success in both Japan and international markets. This is a case where the show has eclipsed to product it was meant to sell, to the point where virtually no one thinks of Cowboy Bebop as a series created to pitch model kits.

The question posed by product-based TV series is less “Can they have value beyond advertising the product?” than “Could series of equal quality be created without being based on existing product?” In an ideal world, he answer would be “yes.” The “secret ingredient” that makes a good product-based TV show good is not the toy concept, but the talented people who can take that concept, flesh it out, and make it capable of supporting seasons’ worth of stories. A crew that produces a great toy-based series should be able to do just as well – if not even better – with a completely original concept. But children’s television is a business. Having another company helping to finance the production of an animated series can look like a pretty good deal to the animation studio. On top of that, networks tend to look for shows and concepts that have already enjoyed success or gained a following in one medium or another. Take another spin through the channels and count how many of the shows are based on anything pre-existing: a movie, a comic, a book, an older TV series. Shows based on original ideas still do happen, but shows based on concepts proven successful are still seen as a safer bet. With toy-based shows, the benefits can go both ways: kids who like the show will buy the toys and kids who are excited about the toys will want to watch the show.

I do believe that a show’s connection to a product for children is something parents should be aware of when looking at what their kids are watching. But it is a factor in determining the value of a show, not the only one. A show that is based on a toyline is not automatically going to be garbage, just as an original concept is no guarantee that a show will be good. Whatever its origins, a good animated series can be genuinely entertaining and even educate its audience about what elements make a compelling story at the very least. Toy-based TV shows might be trying to sell you something, but the best of them are way more than half-hour commercials.

DISCLOSURE: The author’s husband is an employee of the toy company Hasbro. No, he can’t get you free toys, get a particular toy made for you, or tell you what toys are going to be made. So don’t ask.

All images are copyright their respective owners.

Upcoming Animation - Despicable Me

Hot on the heels of the first full length trailer for How To Train Your Dragon comes the new trailer for Universal's Despicable Me. I haven't found an embedable version of this one yet, so check it out here.

Thoughts?

Upcoming Animation - How To Train Your Dragon

Another new trailer for an upcoming animated feature film has just hit the internet. This one is for DreamWorks Animation's latest movie: How To Train Your Dragon. A lot of the excitement about this film is based on the fact that it's directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the directing team responsible for Disney's Lilo and Stitch. Since Sanders left Disney after being removed as the director of the film that eventually became Bolt, animation fans have been eager to see what he and his writing and directing partner would come up with next. And now, we get our first taste.





Once again, I want to know what you think. Are you looking forward to this movie or does it leave you cold? Is Disney going to regret losing Sanders and Be Blois? Do you see success on the horizaon for DreamWorks, or failure?

Kung Fu Panda - DreamWorks' Turning Point?

Prior a week ago, I had never seen Kung Fu Panda.

I know, I know. It’s not something I’m proud of. I could say that previous DreamWorks animated films – particularly Shrek – hadn’t impressed me or that the trailers made it look like little more than “fat guy does martial arts.” But I had the positive reviews of numerous critics and animation fans to go on, plus the fact that the film swept the 2008 Annie Awards. So why did it take me so long to actually watch the movie? I can only chalk it up to my own bad judgment. Because not only was I missing out on a good animated movie, I was missing what DreamWorks Animation really had to offer.



The basic plot of Kung Fu Panda is a classic “unlikely hero” story. Po, the panda of the film’s title, does not start out as a martial arts master. He’s more of a fanboy. He knows all the stories of the great warriors, has all the posters on his bedroom walls, collects the action figures, and dreams of being a kung fu master. But he has neither the training nor the physique to make his dream anything more than that. It seems that Po’s fate will be to take over the noodle restaurant run by his father, a character so different from Po that he is literally another species. But Po’s life is changed forever when he is chosen to become the next Dragon Warrior, a legendary hero who will protect the valley from a coming threat.

What keeps the audience sympathetic to Po is the fact that he realizes that he is not cut out to be a master of kung fu. It may be his dream, but he has no delusions of greatness, no secret belief that he really could be the great warrior he wishes he was if someone just gave him the chance. As the film gets underway, all Po wants is to see his heroes, the Furious Five, in action and watch one of them get picked to be the Dragon Warrior. He ends up winning the title himself completely by accident. It’s not an honor sought out or wants. He fully understands that he is out of his league and that the Five and Master Shifu – who is charged with training Po – don’t want him around. As he later confesses, Po stays not out of some belief that he has what it takes to be the Dragon Warrior, but because he hopes that Master Shifu can mold him into something better than what he is now, something even the slightest bit closer to the great hero Po longs to be. Because Po is so acutely aware of his own inadequacies, he remains likeable as he tries to live up to these new expectations of him and his own dreams.



Fans of martial arts movies will find a lot of familiar material inn Kung Fu Panda. There’s the strict teacher, his former prize pupil who turned to evil, the ancient, wise master whose passing force the other characters to step up and become heroes, an unconventional style of training, and so on. What’s impressive is how the film keeps these staples of the genre from feeling like clichés by giving them a specificity driven by the characters themselves. For example, Tai Lung was not merely Shifu’s best student before his lust for power drove him to turn against Shifu and the villagers; he was also Shifu’s adopted son. Shifu was devastated by Tai Lung’s betrayal and eventual imprisonment, which explains why he is now such a harsh and unforgiving teacher. That in turn sets up for Shifu’s evolving relationship with Po. In finding an effective method to teach Po kung fu, Shifu rediscovers the joy of teaching and truly believing in his student.

The story also manages to avoid several clichés. Though Po’s father doesn’t completely understand Po’s love of kung fu, there is not subplot where Po has to earn his father’s respect or convince him that kung fu is as worthwhile a pursuit as noodles. Additionally, Po is not an incompetent cook. He may not be a great waiter (he can barely fit between the tables), but his homemade soup impresses even the Furious Five. Po could have been a good cook, even a great one, but he isn’t passionate about noodles the way he is about kung fu. By showing that Po is capable at something, the story avoids getting distracted by a secondary thread about Po needing to prove that he can become accomplished at anything and is able to focus on Po following his dream. I was pleasantly surprised that the film did not force a romance between Po and Tigress of the Furious Five. She is the character most irritated by his presence in the beginning and comes to respect him in the end, but that’s it. After so many animated films that insist on including a love story regardless of whether the film really needs one, it’s quite refreshing to see a movie that doesn’t have that requirement.



Even the jokes about Po’s weight are actually treated with some degree of restraint. Yes, the film makes it clear that Po is a big, fat panda, a nervous eater by his own admission. And yes, Master Shifu eventually realizes that the best way to teach Po kung fu is to use food. But many of the jokes at Po’s expense come from characters who are actively trying to be mean to him. Shifu’s use of food in Po’s training is successful not because Po is completely obsessed with food to the point of insanity, but because food give him a distraction that keeps him from overthinking what he’s doing. When Po is finally able to grab a dumpling from him master after a length sparring match, Po tosses his prize back to Shifu and says with a smile “I’m not hungry.” This movie represent a breakthrough for DreamWorks Animation in part because of the excellent balance between humor and drama and because the humor comes mainly from the characters and their situations rather than easy parodies, pop culture references, and fart jokes.

The character animation and design strikes me as a huge step up from the previous DreamWorks films I have seen. Instead of trying to create completely realistic characters, Kung Fu Panda embraces a more stylized cartoony aesthetic for its cast. The designs are very appealing, both distinct from one another and stylisticly similar. No viewer would ever confuse Po with Tigress or Monkey or Tai Lung, yet they all still feel like they come from the same world, belong in the same movie. The believability of a character like Po comes partly from his convincing fur texture and the well render cloth of his pants, but owes more to the character touches in his animation that make him feel like a real individual. This includes everything from the more obvious aspects of the character: his exhausted panting and bent forward catching his breath posture after climbing the numerous steps to the Jade Palace or the way his ample flab rolls around as he moves, to smaller moments: a subtle change of expression or the way he wipes his hand off on his chest. Since the characters are various kinds of animals, they are obviously going to move in very different ways, which helps to keep the film’s many fight scenes entertaining. Where the movie excels is in making the characters’ actions and movements reflect not just what kind of animals they are, but what kind of individuals they are.



The film’s overall look is very pleasing to the eye. The environments set us firmly in the semi-mythical China of martial arts films, with its sweeping landscapes, mountaintops rising out of the mists, and distinctive architecture. Color and lighting support the mood of each scene. Every scene is built on solid principles of design and storytelling that make it greatly satisfying to watch.

Kung Fu Panda does not break any new ground for animation. It is not the first movie to star anthropomorphic animals and animated them well, nor is it likely to be the last. Few viewers will be truly surprised to find out that Po does eventually save the day. If any new computer animation techniques were invented for this film, the effect is too subtle for most filmgoers – me included – to notice. What Kung Fu Panda does show is how effective it can be to simply tell a good story with strong animation and engaging characters. The movie strikes the balance between light comedy and meaningful, serious moments that had previously eluded DreamWorks. It presents its important concepts and themes clearly, but avoids beating the audience over the head with them. It neither gets lost in its own self importance, nor mocks itself to the point where viewers feel distanced from the characters and story. In short, it is a solid, entertaining film, a kind that I hope DreamWorks will continue to make.

All images in this article are copyright Dreamworks.

Upcoming Animation - Toy Story 3

Perhaps you already know, but there is a trailer for Toy Story 3. Not the teaser with the toys building the logo that's been kicking around since Up came out, an honest-to-goodness footage from the movie trailer.





(If you want to see a higher definition version, The Animation Blog has some links.

It seems that all the rumors are true. A teenaged Andy is about to leave for college and the toys end up at the daycare from hell. (An odd turn of events, considering that very early drafts of the original Toy Story protayed just such a place as the ideal home for toys where they would be played with and loved forever.) There's clearly plenty of comedy, but Rnady Newman's melancholy vocal and Woody looking out at an Andy's room that has seen much change make it clear that there is a lot of sadness at the heart of this tale.

So what do you think? Are you excited or disappointed? Will Pixar's big gamble mean another hit for the studio? Or is this the equivalent of having Christopher Robin sell Pooh and Tigger for money to buy an XBox?

Thoughts on "9"

My husband and I caught an evening showing of 9 (not to be confused with District 9, the upcoming Nine, or this) on Thursday. I've had a couple of days to think about it, but I'm still torn. I like what 9 represents, but I'm not sure I like the actual film quite as much.




I had already seen and liked the original short film by Shane Acker that 9 is based on. I like how the character design feels informed by stop-motion, from the small scale of the characters to the real world object and textures that they're made of. The short has a beginning, a middle, and an end and gets its ideas across without the aid of dialogue. It's a very solid and enjoyable student film.

What was - and in some ways, still is - exciting to me about the movie 9 is that it retains that same stop-motion inspired aesthetic. There are no other CG films that look like 9. Additionally, (and my husband really deserves the credit for bringing this up) 9 is a heavily promoted animated action-adventure film in wide release that is neither aimed at young kids and their families nor a serious meditation on the horrors of war that is totally inappropriate for children. While I've certainly loved films that fall into both of these categories, it seems like most animated films today fall at the most extreme ends of the spectrum. There's a huge area in the middle that theatrical animation, particularly in the US, has left largely unexplored. The idea that 9, which was number two at the box office on its opening weekend, could kick off a new interest in animated entertainment for adults and older teens is pretty exciting.

There were definitely things I enjoyed about 9. The interesting and unique design from the short is still there, the same little sackcloth heroes and bone-machine hybrid monsters. The story begins with the end of all human life - and possibly all organic life - on Earth, a subject you won't find in most animated films for the kiddie set. I particularly liked the twins 3 and 4, mute characters with fluttery moth-like movements and eyes that flicker like film projectors. They act as librarians, gathering information left behind by the extinct human species and the details of the world around them. They keep a picture catalog of the various subjects they've researched. Each image is attached to a string leading to the spot where the information on that subject is stored, sort of a "low-tech Wikipedia." (My husband came up with that term. I should probably give him a co-writer credit for this article.) It's fun to watch and and interesting take on how information might survive in a post-apocalyptic society.

Unfortunately, 9 also has a number of big problems in both story and, surprisingly, visuals. Quite a few critics have commented on how thin the movie's plot is, so I went in expecting that. But I was still disappointed with how weak the story ended up being. Much of the action falls into a cycle of "run, then fight," to the point where the battle scenes start to feel repetitive. Despite the plot not being terribly complex, there are still ideas and explanations that make no sense when given even a moment's thought. Some of the films key concepts feel woefully underexplained. The end result is a string of action sequences that frequently fail to stand out from one another held together by exposition that is never quite enough to answer all the questions the film raises.

What really surprised me was that the visuals were not as good as I had hoped they would be. The film's protagonists all have protruding metal eyes that resemble small lenses. Their pupils can dilate and contract, but that's about all the expression the the animators can get out of their eyes. They do have brows, but since their eyes are rigid metal, the brows just move around without changing the shape of the eyes, which leads to weak expressions. It's not impossible to design a character with mechanical parts and an expressive face. Look at the title character in The Iron Giant, whose whole body is designed to allow a wide range of poses and expressions while still being convincing as a robot made of metal.

The lack of strong facial expressions in the main characters might not have been and insurmountable problem. But the character's body language is equally weak. From the first few scenes, I was noticing poses that were not conveying the action and emotion as well as they could have if the poses had been stronger. Combined with the lack of strong facial expressions and celebrity voice performances that seldom rise above a satisfactory level, it made for characters I didn't feel invested in, which is why I spent my time noticing flaws like weak poses and statements that don't make sense instead of worrying about the characters and their plight.

In spite of all my problems with 9, I honestly hope it does well. I can't recommend it unconditionally. If you were completely blown away by the original short, you may well enjoy the movie. If you only liked the short or found it just "OK," then you can probably wait and rent it when it comes out on DVD. But the potential for 9's success to open the door for other - hopefully better - animated films for adults with big studio backing and a mission to entertain is still very exciting for me. So even if 9 was not a film I enjoyed all the way through, I still wish it well because of the possible future it represents for animation.

Image is copyright Focus Features.

Famous Firsts - Toy Story, Part Three

Last week, we saw Woody and Buzz get separated from Andy, try to reunite with him at Pizza Planet, and take an unexpected and unwanted detour to Sid's house. Buzz has been forced to confront the fact that he is a toy. Woody still wants nothing more than to get home before Andy moves away and leaves him behind forever.

(You may notice that the images in this article are a little larger than normal. I'm experimenting with a bigger image size, so bear with me while I figure out what works best. I do have larger size version of most of the images from my past articles, so if I decide that I like this format better, I could theoretically go back and put larger images in them as well.)


Sometime later, Woody emerges from his hiding place in the storage closet. Why a storage closet? So that Woody can get tangled up in a string of Christmas lights. Why does Woody have to get tangled up in a string of Christmas lights? So that he can use it in his attempt to get back over to Andy’s room. It’s a minor point and the movie doesn’t make too much of setting up the idea, but it gets highlighted enough that the audience doesn’t end up wondering “Now where on earth did he get those Christmas lights?” Setting up a prop or a concept like this, especially when the payoff doesn’t come until later, is a delicate balancing act. If it is pointed out too blatantly, the audience will feel like it’s just a convenient device or realize too soon that it will be important later. Introduce it too subtly and the audience will miss it. When it’s done right, the item or idea just feels like a natural part of the story and you never stop to think about the care that went into making it fit.

After Buzz’s fall from the railing, he was discovered by Hannah, who has now included him as a guest at her tea party. Since Sid “plays with” and decapitates most of her dolls, she figures it’s fair for her to take one of his toys for use in her games. So with the addition of a pink apron and a flowered hat, Buzz is transformed into “Mrs. Nesbitt.” This could potentially be a very humiliating experience, but Buzz isn’t in any state to care.

While the toys in Toy Story hold up pretty well when compared with the character in modern CG films, the more organic characters and objects look dated. Pixar made the smart choice of keeping the focus of the story off the human characters and going for a more stylized look for them than a purely realistic one. But you can still tell that the technology wasn’t quite there yet. Hannah’s hair never seems to move quite as much as it should and both her clothes and the blanket on her bed look starched stiff. It’s a good first try with the technology available at the time, but compare one of the human characters in this film with one from
Woody immediately asks Buzz if he is okay, showing that Woody is starting to feel some degree of genuine concern for the other toy. At this stage, Buzz’s reaction to learning that he isn’t a space ranger is played for laughs. The normally poised and in-control Buzz is now slurring his speech and insisting that he is Mrs. Nesbitt. Buzz is essentially “drunk” on imaginary tea and doesn’t really know who he is anymore, so he might as well be Mrs. Nesbitt. Given that Woody probably has little more than an inkling of what Buzz has been through and Buzz is throwing himself on the floor and wailing about how he is a sham, it is perfectly understandable that Woody is less concerned about Buzz’s problem and more concerned about getting them home.

Back in Andy’s room, Hamm and Mr. Potato Head are by the window playing the toy equivalent of strip Battleship. In a nice detail, Battleship was the game that Andy got for his birthday. Frankly, I’m not sure what Hamm would have to give up if he lost, but it seems to be a moot point as Potato Head is already down by a hat and a nose. From Sid’s open bedroom window, which conveniently faces Andy’s house, Woody manages to get the toys’ attention. He has the Christmas lights from before and tosses them over to Slinky in Andy’s window. This could well be the end of the story, except that the movie isn’t really about two toys finding their way back home. It’s about two toys learning to get along with each other and deal with their problems. Woody still hasn’t faced his fears about being replaced. Buzz is still extremely depressed about being a toy. And, importantly for this scene, Andy’s other toys don’t yet realize that Buzz is all right and that Woody is actually trying to bring him home.

Not surprisingly, it’s bad tempered Mr. Potato Head who still considers Woody plaything non grata and reminds the other toys why this is. Woody insists that Buzz is with him and alive and well, but Buzz is still far too depressed to come to the window and prove this. He responds to Woody’s request to come up and give him a hand by tossing his detached arm up onto the table. In a moment of desperation, Woody tries use to convince Andy’s toys that Buzz is just behind the window. (This scene was apparently developed partly by giving Tom Hanks a prop arm to play with and letting him ad lib.) The act quickly falls apart when Woody accidentally reveals that all he has of Buzz is an arm, to the shock and horror of the other toys. Potato Head calls Woody a “murderer” and drops the other end of the Christmas lights, cutting off what may be Woody’s last hope for escape.

It is a case of “right conclusion, wrong time.” As we know, Buzz is still alive and Woody really does want to get both of them back to Andy’s house. But neither Woody nor Buzz would be in this mess if Woody hadn’t pushed Buzz out of the window in the first place, which is something Woody still hasn’t accepted responsibility for. The other toys are not entirely incorrect in believing that Woody wanted Buzz out of the way and seeing Buzz’s arm with no sign of the rest of him only serves to convince them of their worst fears. Though Potato Head is the one to drop the Christmas lights, Slinky is the last of the toys to leave the window. He looks at Woody with his head hung low and a miserable expression on his face. Though he is Woody’s best pal, even Slinky can’t deny the apparent evidence that Woody has sent Buzz the way of Combat Carl. Sadly, he closes the blinds as Woody pleads for him to come back. Storm clouds roll in overhead, reflecting Woody’s despair at the seemingly hopeless predicament he is in.

A strange noise catches Woody’s attention and he turns around just in time to see the mutant toys closing in on Buzz. This is the real turning point for Woody’s relationship with Buzz. As far as Woody knows, he may never see Andy’s room again, which would negate his initial reason for even continuing to hang around Buzz. In spite of that, Woody runs over to try and rescue Buzz from the mutant toys. He isn’t very effective initially, only succeeding in losing Buzz’s arm to the mutants. But when he does eventually pull the mutants off of Buzz, he is surprised to find that all they have done is pop Buzz’s arm back into place. The doll and pterodactyl that Sid performed his “operation” on earlier are shown to be alive and whole again. Creepy looking though they may be, the mutants are actually friendly and helpful.

There’s another important moment in this scene, one that is easy to miss between the excitement of the mutants seemingly attacking Buzz and Sid’s return moments later. While he’s awkwardly apologizing to the mutants, Woody explains that he had thought that they were going to “eat my friend.” Woody referring to Buzz as his friend would have been completely unthinkable even just a few hours ago. But much has changed. As Woody will say himself later, Buzz is pretty much all he has right now.

Woody may be on the way to learning to get along with Buzz, but Buzz is still so depressed that he can’t even bring himself to hide from Sid. As a result, Sid duct tapes Buzz to his just-arrived rocket and plans to blow him up the next morning once the weather clears. This introduces one of the two ticking clocks that our heroes will be racing against for the remainder of the movie and in this case, there is a literal alarm clock counting down the time until Sid wakes up. The other deadline is one that has been there all along, but in case we’ve forgotten about it with everything else that has happened, the film takes us back over to Andy’s room, where all of Andy’s toys have been packed away in boxes. As Andy’s mom reminds us, they will be moving tomorrow and if Woody and Buzz don’t get back to Andy’s house before then, they will be left behind. The scene also reveals that Andy is worried about both Buzz and Woody. Where he previously had to choose which of his two favorite toys to take to bed with him and which to leave in the toy box, Andy is now left with nothing but his cowboy hat to keep him company through the night.

Back at Sid’s house, Buzz is still taped to the rocket, while Woody is trapped in a plastic crate that Sid set his toolbox on top of. Though it’s still not easy for him to do, Woody is forced to admit that he can’t free himself without Buzz’s help. As opposed to his earlier mournful theatrics, Buzz’s reaction to Woody is played very straight and very quiet as he answers that he can’t help Woody or anyone else for that matter. For the first time, he talks directly about what he has been through. He describes himself as “a stupid, little, insignificant toy,” “insignificant being the key word here. Buzz believed he was someone important, someone with the power to rescue entire galaxies. To him, being a toy means he is powerless and unimportant. Buzz can’t even see what Andy would want with him now that Buzz realizes he is just another toy and not a space ranger. As far as Buzz is concerned, Sid might as well blow him up.

All of this puts Woody in a position he probably never thought he would be in nor wanted to be in: he has to make Buzz understand what is great about being a toy, Andy’s toy in particular. The toy who just a short time ago would have been the last toy on earth to do so is now telling Buzz that Andy thinks Buzz is amazing because he is a toy. Woody, who towards the beginning of the movie was demeaning every one of Buzz’s special features, now lists them all as the very reasons why Andy would want Buzz. It is being in this position that finally gets Woody to admit to his own problem. It isn’t that Buzz was annoying or that Buss really believed he was a space ranger or even that Buzz was stealing Andy away from Woody. Woody’s problem is that he knows Buzz is the cooler toy and a clear sign that Woody is outdated. After listing Buzz’s various state-of-the-art toy features, Woody pulls his pullstring as an example of his only feature, pathetically dated when compared with Buzz’s high quality voice box. The question for Woody is not why Andy would want to play with Buzz, but why Andy would want to play with Woody when he has a toy like Buzz. If Buzz hadn’t come along, it would have been another toy. Deep down, Woody has come to believe that he is inevitably going to be replaced, not just played with less, but totally forgotten. He even tells Buzz that it should be him rather than Buzz strapped to the rocket, because if Woody doesn’t mean anything to Andy anymore, what’s the point? Woody is, in fact, at the exact same point that Buzz is emotionally. Buzz doesn’t care about his life if he can’t be a space ranger and Woody doesn’t want to live if Andy isn’t going to love him anymore.

As the storm begins to clear and let more light in through the window, Buzz looks down at the name “Andy” written on his foot and finally gets it. Not just that he can be a toy and still be important to someone, but also what Andy means to Woody and that Woody’s hostility towards Buzz has all really been about Woody’s fear that he was losing the person who matters to him more than anyone else. So even as Woody is telling Buzz to just go on without him and get back to Andy, Buzz isn’t listening. Now that he understands that, as Woody himself said back at the beginning of the movie, being a toy is about being there for a kid when he needs you, Buzz is going to do everything in his power to ensure that both he and Woody are able to do just that.

Pixar took great care to make their movie feel as timeless as possible, using toys and toy types that have been popular with kids for generations as their cast and generally avoiding pop culture references. The result is that only a very few jokes in the movie have become dated in the years since its release. One of these few is the “Binford” label on Sid’s toolbox. Binford Tools was the fictional tool company in the TV series Home Improvement, which starred Tim Allen, the voice of Buzz. I don’t know how many viewers watching the film today are aware of this, but since it’s only a visual joke and there are any number of made-up brands, companies, and retailers in Toy Story - Pizza Planet, Dinoco gas stations, Virtual Realty, Eggman Movers – anyone who wasn’t aware of the Home Improvement connection could simple assume that “Binford” is also a fictional brand created for the film.

So that’s it, right? Buzz has learned that being a toy can be a fulfilling life and Woody has learned to get along with Buzz and confronted his fear of being replaced. Both toys have worked out their problems. So now they get to go home?

Not yet. There are still a few problems left to deal with and chief among them right now is Sid. Yes, Woody and Buzz could escape right now, get back to Andy and live happily ever after, but if we know that the friendly mutants and any other toy with that bad luck to cross paths with Sid is still in danger, then this isn’t going to be a very satisfying movie. It isn’t so much about getting “revenge” on Sid as ensuring that he will never harm another toy ever again. But there’s another issue. Remember the other ticking clock? While he’s working to get the toolbox off of the plastic crate and free Woody, Buzz spots a moving van arriving at Andy’s house. It’s a bit too late in the film to introduce a new big moral dilemma: do we leave now and made certain we reach Andy before he moves away or stay and help the mutant toys even though we might get left behind? So the decision is taken out of the characters’ hands. Sid’s alarm clock goes off mere seconds after Woody is freed from the plastic crate. Sid wakes up and takes off with Buzz to get his rocket launch underway, leaving Woody with no choice but to stay and rescue Buzz, with the help of the mutant toys.

While Woody is trying to convince the mutants to help him save Buzz, he not only refers to Buzz as his friend again, but also finally admits that this entire situation is his fault for pushing Buzz out of the window in the first place. If we didn’t before, now we know for certain that Woody is not the same jealous toy who wanted nothing more than for Buzz to disappear.

Woody has a plan, which he admits will involve “breaking a few rules.” The audience needs to understand that what is about to happen is the result of a desperate situation. The toys will be breaking the rules that they normally live by and while we still may not understand why these rules exist in the first place, we do get that this is a one-time thing and that the toys will not be coming to life around humans on a regular basis. Woody’s plan involves getting Scud – the most direct threat to their operation – out of the house, sneaking out the back door quickly but without being seen, and rescuing Buzz while insuring that Sid will never mistreat his toys again. Watching him formulate his plan and put it into action, we get to see that Woody has qualities that will make him a good leader whether or not he remains Andy’s favorite toy. He is capable of analyzing the situation, coming up with a plan to overcome the obstacles in his path, and using the strengths of the team he has to make that plan work.

As Woody is handing out assignments to the mutant toys, we get one last reminder of what is ultimately at stake here. Andy stands alone in his room as the last box of toys is being taken out by the movers. He has his cowboy hat in one hand and Buzz’s empty spaceship-shaped box in the other. We already knew that Andy wasn’t going to find Woody and Buzz in his room or anywhere in his house, but his downcast expression tells us just how sad he is that his two favorite toys haven’t turned up.

I doubt the words “Wind the frog” have ever been spoken in any other film with such drama and authority as Woody gives them. I would be very surprised if they have ever been spoken in any other film at all.

Woody’s plan goes off without a hitch and all of the toys make it outside to where Sid has constructed the launch pad for Buzz’s impending flight. There is another key point here that sets up for a later scene. The filmmakers need to make sure that we notice Sid putting a match into Woody’s holster as he tosses Woody onto the grill and makes plans for them to have a “cookout” later on. Because it seems like such a natural thing for Sid to do, especially since he already has the matches on hand to light the fuse on the rocket, it doesn’t feel like an obvious plot point that will become important later.

Though for some reason he waits until the last possible second to do it, Woody initiates the last part of his plan, first getting Sid’s attention by spouting recorded phrases from his scratch pull-string voice box, then using that same voice to address Sid directly. As Woody makes it clear that the toys don’t appreciate the way Sid “plays” with them, the mutants and various toys that Sid has discarded in the yard emerge from their hiding places and surround Sid like zombies in a horror movie. Woody himself doesn’t move at all until he rotates his head around 360 degrees in a nod to The Exorcist and finally comes fully to life as he gives Sid a final warning to “play nice.” Sid runs away screaming and is probably in for years of therapy, but the audience can now rest assured that the toys he encounters will be safe from now on.

There is an unintended additional benefit to the success of Woody’s plan. Poor, picked on Hannah can now turn the tables on her big brother and scare the wits out of him just by chasing him around the house with one of her dolls. It’s a fun ending to their story arc and a moment that has likely elicited a chuckle from more than one younger sibling watching the film over the years.

Woody, good leader that he is, takes a moment to praise the other toys for their performances and the little extra touches that they improvised. Buzz is certainly grateful to Woody for saving his life, but neither of them are characters who really wear their hearts on their sleeves. So they aren’t about to have a big conversation about how they’re now friends, much less sing about it. All that Buzz says to Woody is a single, sincere “Thanks,” accompanied by a handshake, which is all that’s needed.

The sound of Andy and his mom saying goodbye to their old house as the car starts to pull out of the driveway signals that the movie will be running in high gear from this point on. Woody’s farewell to Sid’s toys is a hasty “Wegottarun!Thanksguys!” as he and Buzz race to catch up with the car. Woody does have another quick moment of truth when Buzz, who is still taped to the rocket, gets stuck going through the fence separating the two yards while Woody easily slips through. By this point, we know that Woody isn’t going to leave Buzz behind even though Buzz is telling him to go on ahead and that he will catch up. So Woody’s indecision is brief and his actions just confirm that he is now committed to making sure his friend gets home safely too.

Much of the movie’s action-packed conclusion deals with Buzz realizing that he can not only have a fulfilling life as a toy, but that he can also still be a hero, a real hero. But again, the movie is now racing along at top speed, so there is no time for Buzz to sit around and reflect on how being a toy doesn’t stop him from helping people. Instead, we seem him come to this realization through actions and split-second decisions, like when he leaps off the back of the moving van to save Woody from a rampaging Scud, even though it means Buzz himself may be left behind.

Aside from getting both toys safely to Andy’s new house, the remaining problem in the movie is that Andy’s other toys still don’t realize that Buzz is alive and Woody is not a murderer. So when Woody shows up on the moving van, rifles through the boxes of toys, and pushes RC off the truck, the other toys assume that Woody is just trying to eliminate more of his perceived competition. Of course they don’t believe Woody’s protests that he is only trying to rescue Buzz. They think that they’ve already seen the grisly aftermath of what Woody did to Buzz. So when they toss Woody down to the street, they believe they are simply saving themselves from a similar fate.

There is a nice moment just before the toys see both Woody and Buzz riding towards the truck on RC where Bo Peep tries to comfort a downcast Slinky with a pat on the head. Though both toys were present when Woody was thrown overboard, neither of them really seemed that into the idea. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bit, but it is a nice reminder that these two toys are Woody’s most loyal friends, even if they still can’t bring themselves to believe that Woody is telling the truth about Buzz.

Slinky tries to make up for not trusting Woody by stretching out to him and Buzz after the ramp on the back of the truck flips over. But Woody and Buzz are the heroes of this film, which means they will have to be solely responsible for getting themselves back to Andy. RC’s batteries start to die and poor Slinky just can’t hold on as the toy car falls farther and farther behind the moving truck.

Here’s where the items and ideas set up earlier in the film start to pay off. Buzz realizes that he’s still taped to the rocket and that Woody still has the match Sid gave him in his holster. There is even a close-up shot of Woody taking the match from his holster and Woody says “Thank you, Sid!” as he lights it, just to make sure we don’t forget where the match came from.

At times, films made with a kid or family audience in mind – animated or otherwise – can get pretty predictable. You are all but guaranteed a happy ending and some audiences watching certain films can call everything from plot twists to actual lines of dialogue before they happen. That is probably part of the reason the car that drives by and blows out the match before Woody can light the rocket is in Toy Story. It isn’t that hard to figure out that Woody and Buzz will catch up to Andy by lighting the rocket. Had Woody simply been able to light the rocket with the match, the film would have fallen into the trap of predictability. With the addition of the car, as the Pixar team has pointed out in numerous commentary tracks, you can stop the film right there, ask first-time viewers what will happen next, and be met almost exclusively with blank stares. The scene works especially well because the audience now in the same place emotionally as Woody. They have understood from the beginning how much Woody cares about Andy. They wanted see both Woody and Buzz reunited with Andy. And now that the last chance for this to happen has seemingly been lost, they will hopefully feel just as devastated as Woody, who reacts with every possible tonal variation on the word “no.”

The solution is the result of another previous setup, as Woody sees the reflected sunlight from Buzz’s helmet starting to burn his hand. So why bother with Sid and the magnifying glass? To make sure that the story plays fair. The solution to the problem cannot seem to come out of nowhere. The audience’s reaction to the reveal should be “Oh, of course! That makes so much sense!” not “Huh, I would have never thought of that” or worse “Isn’t that convenient.” Like in a good mystery, the clues need to be available to the audience so that they feel like they could have solved the puzzle if they had just been thinking about it in the right way. Plus, part of the audience for this film is made up of young kids, who may or may not know that light focused through a clear, curved surface can burn flammable materials. So the films hands us the information we need in a way that feels like it’s just part of the story, gives us just enough time to potentially forget the idea, then reminds Woody and us of it so that there is no doubt in our minds how Woody figured out another way to light the rocket.

The rocket is lit and Woody, Buzz, and RC go airborne. RC is thrown back into the moving truck, ensuring that every last toy is accounted for. And would you believe that the movie throws in an additional problem that Woody and Buzz must conquer before getting back to Andy? Seconds after lighting it, Woody realizes that the rocket is going to explode. But since we’re barely three minutes away from the end of the film, the solution to this problem comes right on the heels of it’s introduction. Buzz’s wings may not be a terillium carbonic alloy, but they are capable of cutting through the duct tape around the rocket just before it explodes and carrying both Woody and Buzz into the sky. Is it necessary to throw one last wrench into the works so late into the movie? Yes. Because this is proof positive that Buzz can realize that he is a toy and still perform amazing feats of heroism. When Buzz believed he was a space ranger, all he could do was fall around Andy’s room in a way that resembled flying. Now that he knows who he truly is, he really can soar through the sky.

We get a reminder of just how far these two characters have come as they finally make their way back to Andy. It is Woody, who was previously so dismissive of Buzz’s space ranger backstory, who now cries out his catchphrase: “To infinity and beyond!” Buzz has not only come to accept being a toy, but has even gained a sense of humor about his experiences, brushing off his ability to fly as what Woody called his earlier attempts at flight: “falling with style.” Buzz also understands exactly where he and Woody belong now. He bypasses the moving truck and deposits himself and Woody in the van (which fortunately has an open sunroof) in a box right next to Andy. In case we have any doubts about Woody’s future, Andy happily hugs both toys close to his chest. His mom is convinced that the two toys were right where Andy left them the whole time. Woody and Buzz share a secret wink in acknowledgement of the fact that they’ve been anywhere but.

Judging by the change of scenery from lush greenery and open sunroofs to falling snow and Christmas decorations, some time has passed between this scene and the previous one. The camera zooms past Andy opening presents and into the Christmas tree, where the green army men have taken up positions to monitor the situation. Panic in the playroom? Actually, no. The toys in Andy’s new room are anticipating the arrival of new toys not with fear, but with excitement. The clearest example of this is Rex, formerly the toy who was most worried about being replaced, talking happily about the possibility of Andy getting an herbivorous dinosaur so that Rex could be cast as the dominant predator. Andy’s baby sister Molly opens up a whole other world of potential new friends for the toys and her first present is the Mrs. Potato Head that Mr. Potato Head has always hoped for.

Andy’s new room reflects both Andy’s affection for his two favorite toys and the newfound friendship between Woody and Buzz. The space ranger décor is still present, but cowboy drawings and posters have returned as well. Andy’s initial excitement about his new toy has given way to equal love of both Woody and Buzz which seems set to last.

Andy might love Woody and Buzz equally, but there is one toy who clearly prefers Woody. Bo Peep ambushes Woody with mistletoe and the next time we see him, his face is covered with lipstick kiss-marks. Bo may have shared the other toys initial excitement over Buzz, but Woody is clearly the only toy for her. If Buzz is even a blip on her radar now, we never hear about it.

From start to finish, Toy Story is a buddy picture. So the ending isn’t some heartfelt affirmation of the toys’ friendship or a duet reprise of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me.” Instead, Buzz gives Woody a knowing, approving look in response to the kiss marks all over Woody’s face and Woody pokes gentle fun at Buzz for seeming nervous as the reports of what Andy got for Christmas start to come in. As the camera starts to pull out through the window, Woody jokingly asks what Andy could possibly get that would be worse than Buzz while giving Buzz’s elbow a friendly shake. Toys or not, these characters are two guys and not the type to talk about their now positive feelings towards one another directly. We know that they’re friends, even if the don’t spell it out for us.

The camera stops its progress and quickly zooms back in on Woody and Buzz when Andy’s first present is revealed to be a real live puppy. The two toys stare at each other in mild shock, then smile awkwardly. Well, Woody did ask. This last second joke could be seen as “here we go again,” but the truth is that both toys are now aware that even if something new comes into Andy’s life, they will still be his toys and will still be important to him. On top of that, Woody and Buzz can now depend on each other.

Toy Story is a remarkably tight narrative. Not a single shot feels wasted, and yet the story never feels rushed either. Like all aspects of the film, the story and pacing are the result of countless hours of work which make the end product feel natural and effortless. Like Woody himself, the once novel visuals of Toy Story have since been topped by newer and flashier productions, including other films from Pixar. But since the success of the film rests on the story and characters, Toy Story not only proved that computer animated films could be hugely successful, but also stands on its own as a film that remains a pleasure to watch to this day.

Bonus: Remember way back in Part One when I said that computer animation has its strengths and weaknesses just like any other medium? Well here’s a look at one of the weaknesses. The following images are render bugs, essentially weird, random mistakes made by the computer in the process of making the film. Even the most high-end computers can screw up at times, occasionally producing funny or bizarre results. These shots are all taken from what may be my favorite special edition DVD set ever: The Ultimate Toy Box.

In this scene, Woody’s legs are at a 90 degree angle from where they should be and his toes point down towards the ground. This is an early render that would have been done to test the staging and animation, hence the lack of detail and background, weird colors, and simplified lighting.

This is pretty disturbing. Buzz’s eyeballs have somehow migrated down to the bottom of his helmet, leaving his eye sockets empty. Despite being detached from his head, Buzz’s eyes continue to blink and look around in time with his dialogue.




Oh dear. Someone has taken Rex’s head and replaced it with Andy’s hand. This is another early render, with the character models looking relatively crude. Rex’s teeth and eyes are still visible in locations that would be correct had Rex’s head not been swapped for a giant hand. This and the previous example should give you an idea of how the character models are made up of various separate parts. All three should give you an idea of how hard it can be to animate with computers when the computer throws glitches like this your way.

All images in this article are copyright Disney/Pixar.

Famous Firsts - Toy Story, Part Two

Woody was living every toy's dream until Buzz Lightyear showed up and became Andy's new favorite toy. Now Woody's scheme to briefly remove Buzz from the picture has backfired. Buzz is missing and Andy's other toys assume that Woody intentionally got rid of his competition. Woody's situation has just gone from bad to worse and his only hope for redemption is to find Buzz and bring him home.

Since he can’t find Buzz, Andy grabs Woody to take with him to Pizza Planet. Except for the fact that there’s a lynch mob of toys waiting for him back home, it’s exactly what Woody wanted: time alone with Andy. But Woody is far too worried about his predicament to enjoy the moment. Buzz, who may be delusional but is not oblivious to what Woody has done to him, had hitched a ride on the back of Andy’s mom’s car and pounces on Woody while Andy and his mom are busy at the gas station. Their fight causes both toys to fall out of the car and to be left behind when Andy and his mom return and the car leaves for Pizza Planet. Woody reacts with genuine confusion – “Doesn’t he realize that I’m not there?” As far as Woody is concerned, Buzz was the problem and he can’t believe that Andy would fail to notice that Woody is missing without that annoying space ranger around to distract him. This is Woody’s deepest fear, not just that Buzz has totally eclipsed him Andy’s affections, but that Woody is such an outdated toy that the end of his days as Andy’s favorite is inevitable.

Once again, we see that Woody and Buzz have virtually no chance of seeing eye to eye due to their completely different priorities. Woody is only concerned with getting back to Andy and blames Buzz for everything that has happened to him. While Buzz correctly points out that neither of them would be in this situation if Woody hadn’t pushed Buzz out of the window, his real concerns are of a much grander scale. Buzz believes that he possesses vital information about the one weakness of his archnemesis Emperor Zurg’s Death Star equivalent and that Woody’s actions have endangered not only Buzz, but the whole galaxy. Woody can only stare at Buzz in disbelief and is finally reduced to flailing his floppy cloth arms and screaming “You are a TOY!” But no amount of screaming or logic from Woody is going to convince Buzz of this fact. And even though he is angry and believes that Woody has caused him some galactic level problems, Buzz never completely loses his cool the way Woody does, a fact which makes him all the more infuriating to Woody. Buzz will never believe or understand that he is a toy so long as the news is coming from Woody. From Buzz’s perspective, Woody is at best exactly what Buzz called them when they first met: local law enforcement, someone who is too wrapped up in the problems of his little corner of the galaxy to see the big picture. At worst, he’s dangerous enough to attempt to terminate Buzz. Similarly, Woody’s animosity towards Buzz and Buzz’s unshakeable belief in his whole space ranger back story means that Woody won’t listen to a word he says, not matter how right Buzz may be when he’s not talking about Star Command and Emperor Zurg.

Woody is so fed up with Buzz that when he spots a Pizza Planet delivery truck pulling into the gas station, he’s all set to hop in and leave Buzz behind. He only stops when he remembers that the toys back home will tear him apart if he comes back without Buzz, reminding us of his largely selfish motivations at this point. Fortunately for Woody, the Pizza Planet delivery truck – a beat up old Toyota judging from the two remaining letters on the back – features a spaceship mounted on top of it, which is just enough to convince Buzz that the truck is a spaceship en route to its home spaceport.



Pizza Planet was originally “Pizza Putter” a combination restaurant and miniature golf course. The change was made so that the destination would be more appealing to Buzz. This could have easily felt far too convenient and I’m still amazed that in all the times I’ve watched Toy Story, Pizza Planet has never felt like an overly convenient plot device. This is largely due to Pizza Planet being designed as a restaurant any kid would love to go to, but never seeming so over the top that it becomes unbelievable. Of course there is a lot of space theming, but there are also a few unrelated video games thrown in for good measure. The only aspect that seems unrealistic is the working claw machine. You buy that Pizza Planet could exist in the real world and give Chuck E. Cheese’s some serious competition and your inner ten year old really wishes there was one near you.

Woody spots Andy and his family and tells Buzz that he has located a “special spaceship.” So Woody and Buzz hop on little Molly’s stroller and go home with Andy and everything’s hunky dory, right? Well, no. Woody and Buzz can’t go home yet because neither one of them has worked out his problems. Woody has only been able to get Buzz to follow him this far by lying to him and using his belief that he is a real space ranger to get him to do what Woody wants. Even if Woody could get Buzz back home without Buzz realizing that they aren’t actually taking a spaceship to his meeting with Star Command, Woody would still have to deal with Buzz hogging Andy’s attention. Buzz is not even aware at this point that he has a problem and is still convinced that he is a spaceman with a mission. He may have been willing to follow Woody up to this point, but he still sees himself as the real expert when it comes to space travel. So while Woody is focused on timing their jump into Molly’s stroller, Buzz runs off to board a spaceship-shaped crane game with a blinking “Ready to launch” sign.



Can you believe that this scene was once little more than a way to get Buzz and Woody from point A to point B? Buzz climbs into claw machine, Woody follows him, Sid spots Buzz, Sid wins both Buzz and Woody as prizes. Then someone – even the guys at Pixar can’t seem to recall exactly who – suggested that the alien toys who were the regular prizes in the crane game could be little cargo cultists and the ideas just started flowing. The squeaky toy aliens and their worshipful reverence for “The Claw” turned the scene into one of the funniest of the film. Plus, poor Woody now has to deal with not only deluded Buzz but also a bunch of loony aliens who see The Claw as their gateway to a better world. It’s annoying enough just having to listen to the lot of them, but it gets even worse when who else but Sid shows up and tries to claim Buzz as a prize and the aliens fight Woody’s attempts to save Buzz.

Okay, living toys and a space-themed pizza restaurant I can buy. But a claw machine that is capable of not only securely grabbing a large chunky spaceman toy by the helmet but also holding on while Woody is trying to pull Buzz back down? Now that’s just silly.

An interesting small detail is that Andy is at Pizza Planet with his whole family while Sid, who doesn’t appear that much older than Andy, is there by himself. Though it isn’t a major focus of the film, the contrast between Andy’s family and Sid’s family does pop up occasionally. Andy lives with his baby sister and his mom, who is single for reasons unknown and very loving and active in her children’s lives. She isn’t so perfectly sweet and understanding that she seems too good to be true, but she does come across as a good mother. Sid comes from a two parent home that he shares with his younger sister Hannah and Scud the dog. Sid’s mom is never seen, only heard offscreen. His dad is glimpsed once snoozing in front of the television. I seriously doubt that Pixar is trying to make some kind of blanket statement about single-parent families versus two-parent ones. The film just shows two different families, one of which produced a nice kid, the other which produced Sid.

We haven’t seen Sid in a while, so the film takes a few minutes to remind us that Woody and Buzz are not safe in his hands. Prior to winning Buzz and Woody from the claw machine, Sid won one of the squeaky toy aliens, which he gives to Scud to maul. Sid then grabs a doll out of his sister Hannah’s arms and rushes it into his room for an “operation” where he switches the doll’s head for a toy pterodactyl’s. Sid’s room is a nightmare of blacklight posters and mangled toy parts. The only living toys here are the frightening mutants that Sid has cobbled together from pieces of different toys. After watching them grab the pieces the doll and pterodactyl, Buzz concludes that the locals are cannibals, as if he and Woody didn’t have enough to worry about.



Back at Andy’s house, the toys watch from the window above as the car pulls into the driveway and Andy realizes that Woody is missing. Andy seems genuinely upset about not being able to find Woody, showing that he hasn’t lost interest in his old favorite toy. While most of the toys assume that Woody’s disappearance proves his guilt, Bo Peep and Slinky are still worried for Woody’s safety. Woody still has a few friends in Andy’s room, for now anyways.

The next morning finds Sid “interrogating” Woody and using a magnifying glass to burn a small spot onto his forehead. This moment sets us up with information that will be vital in a later scene, but it never feels like that, mainly because burning Woody’s forehead with a magnifying glass seems like a very natural thing for Sid to do based on what we know about him.

When Sid takes off for breakfast, Woody spots the open door and makes a break for it. His escape is blocked by the mutant toys and he ends up using Buzz and his karate chop action to keep the mutants at bay and get out the door. This is a good reminder of just how deep Buzz’s delusions run. He is confused when his “laser” fails to have any effect on the mutants and can’t understand how Woody is able to make his arm move by pushing a button on his back. But by the next shot, he seems unconcerned by these strange occurrences. Another toy in his situation might have taken more notice of these incidents and maybe even put two and two together, but Buzz is completely convinced that he is Buzz Lightyear, space ranger, to the point where he can just shake off anything that would seem to contradict that idea. Or maybe the escape mission just has him too busy to put two and two together. Either way, it’s going to take something big to force Buzz to realize what he truly is.

Scud is alerted to the presence of the toys, forcing Buzz and Woody to split up and hide. The ostensible reason for this is so Scud will have less chance of finding both of the toys. But the real narrative reason is that Buzz must be alone for what is about to happen to him.

Buzz narrowly escapes from Scud, hiding in the darkened room where Sid’s dad has fallen asleep watching championship bowling. As Scud gives up and walks away, Buzz hears a voice calling him. The voice identifies itself as “Star Command” as the Star Command symbol appears on the television screen that provides the only light in the room. Elated, Buzz flips open his wrist communicator. But before he can respond, a young boy’s voice replies “Buzz Lightyear responding.” Confused, Buzz looks up and discover that the television isn’t broadcast a communiqué from Star Command, but a commercial for the Buzz Lightyear action figure. And suddenly, everything starts to make sense. Why was Woody able to use a button to make Buzz’s arm move? Because the Buzz Lightyear action figure has a karate chop action. Why didn’t Buzz’s laser have any effect on the mutants? Because the Buzz Lightyear action figure only has a pulsating red light bulb on its arm. Why do the buttons on Buzz’s chest activate phrases like “There’s a secret mission in uncharted space”? Because the Buzz Lightyear action figure has multi-phrase voice simulator. Despite the featured high-pressure space wings, the advertisement notes – in text and speech much larger and slower than in any real commercial – that the Buzz Lightyear action figure is “not a flying toy.” The commercial comes to a close with first a shot of three Buzz action figures, and then hundreds of them sitting on the shelves, all toys, all exactly like Buzz. Buzz lifts up the cover to his wrist communicator to reveal three words he had never noticed before: “Made in Taiwan.”



Buzz never would have believed this from Woody. He had already written Woody off as someone who just couldn’t grasp the big intergalactic picture. But the television commercial is impartial, with no grudge against Buzz like Woody has, and the ability to explain every strange thing that has happened to Buzz point by point. Buzz finally realizes that Woody was right: he is a toy.

Story-wise, no good could have come of Woody being present when Buzz realizes the truth. His reaction could have either been sympathy, disinterest, or “See? I told you so.” The first comes later; Woody isn’t quite to the point where he’s ready to view Buzz as a friend. The latter two would make Woody seem like a jerk, causing him to lose the audience’s sympathy. So Woody doesn’t meet back up with Buzz until later, at a point where Buzz has already gone through a few stages of grieving and it’s more understandable that Woody would be more focused on getting both of them home than on Buzz’s feelings.

Buzz’s realization leads into the last song of the movie, “I Will Go Sailing No More.” While the first two songs focused on Woody’s perspective, this one is from Buzz’s point of view. It may not be the most famous song from the movie, but it is probably the most important. Up to now, we have been seeing Buzz largely through Woody’s eyes. We may have felt sympathetic towards him from time to time, but we have known from the beginning that Buzz is a toy and that all his talk about Star Command and Emperor Zurg and threats to the galaxy are nothing more than fantasy. In order for Buzz realizing that he is a toy to really register as a sad moment, we need to understand what Buzz is going through and how he feels about all of this Star Command stuff. Which is where the song comes in. The music tells us that this is a low point in Buzz’s story in a very general way while the lyrics fill in the details of Buzz being forced to come down to earth and accept what he is. Buzz loved being a space ranger, or at least believing that he was one. He was somebody important with amazing abilities. He could fly, he could zap enemies with his laser, he could defend the whole galaxy from evil. Being a space ranger was Buzz’s whole identity, much as being Andy’s favorite toy was Woody’s life. And now, just like Woody, he is having all of that taken away from him.

Also unlike the other two songs, “I Will Go Sailing No More” takes Buzz through a change of mindset and mood. Woody loves Andy all the way through “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” and hates Buzz all the way through “Strange Things.” But halfway through his song, Buzz has a moment of denial. He shuts his wrist communicator and even though it isn’t it close-up, we just saw him discover the “Made In Taiwan” on the lid so we know that’s what he doesn’t want to see as me makes his last attempt to prove that he isn’t a toy. He climbs to the top of the stairway railing, echoing the start of his “flight” back in Andy’s room. But this time, there is no series of racecar tracks and balls and toy airplanes to stop his fall. Buzz watches the window he was attempting to fly though grow smaller and smaller as he falls and finally hits the floor below, popping one of his arms out of its socket. The song follows his arc, giving voice to his initial sadness at his loss, then his determination to prove that that he has learned is not true, and finally the inescapable conclusion that his days as a space ranger were little more than a dream.



To be concluded.....

All images in this article are copyright Disney/Pixar.